My two cents here: I think the german bicycle industry was at least as big as the english and probably bigger than the american inudstry but had a totally different focus in what kind of bikes were demanded and therefore produced. Go to any german train station any you will find lots of bikes locked there used as a daily transport for all kinds of people. Same thing in the UK but hardly ever the same amount of bikes in the U.S. where bikes are considered sporting goods. We had huge manufacturers in the two old industrial centers Bielfeld and Nürnberg but they all produced mostly ordinary city bikes but not lightweights. So it is just logical that those off topic producers and their bikes like Wanderer, Opel, Göricke, Miele, Adler, Hercules, Express, Gritzner, Brennabor, Dürkopp, Rixe and many others do not show in the CR-Site. Although some of those producers had lightweights in their production line but only in very samll numbers. We never established that Cycling club culture and lifestyle like in the UK, thus handmade small builders did not come up very well except a few. Of course the list is also lacking more german contributors like Martin. It is still amazing to me how many well informed enthusiasts bring together a huge amount of facts about bikes and components in this list. I think there is more knowledge about some italian makers than in italy itself for an example.
Michael Schmid Oberammergau Germany Tel.: +49 8821 798790 Fax.:+49 8821 798791 mail: schmid@zunterer.com http://www.zunterer.com
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Im Auftrag von marcus.e.helman@gm.com Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. April 2007 15:28 An: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Betreff: [CR]Why is there no German threading?
I know it can be hard to explain why something does not exist, but I was
suddenly struck by the lack of a German presence in our hobby. The CR website lists bicycle manufacturers by country, and the differences are startling
The Britsh Isles: 88 Italy: 53 France: 33 Germany: 6
Germany industrialized around the same time as the rest of Western Europe. Why didn't Germany develop a bicycle industry like England, France and Italy? One might argue that after WWII and the partition into East and West, West Germany concentrated on other industrial products e.g. cars, and appliances, Yet England, France and Italy all produced cars, appliances, AND bicycles after the war. [insert joke about relative quality of German, British, French and Italian cars and appliances] So what gives?
Best regards,
Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI